Morris so proud of his Olympians
FORMER Loughborough Students Phil Burgess and Alex Davis will enhance the University’s remarkable reputation as a breeding ground for top stars when they step into the Rio cauldron to represent Team GB at the Olympics.
More are set to follow according to Dave Morris, the National One outfit’s rugby director, who has helped develop the careers of no fewer than 54 players who have gone on to play Premiership and Championship rugby since he joined the coaching staff in 2005.
This season’s Premiership will feature former Loughborough players Charlie Matthews (Harlequins), Harry Williams and Will Chudley (both Exeter), Olly Robinson (Bristol) and Fraser Balmain (Leicester), while the Championship is littered with ex-Students.
Morris, below, told The Rugby Paper: “Seeing Phil Burgess and Alex Davis at the Olympics will be a very proud moment for all the people who’ve contributed to their development, and we’re equally proud of all the players who’ve come through our teams.
“We’ve always been pretty clear on our role within the rugby landscape, about picking up players between the ages of 18 and 21, and we take that responsibility seriously to try and develop guys academically, as rugby players and as people.
“When you see guys like Harry Williams, who went to Jersey and is now doing so well at Exeter, you know Loughborough’s a fantastic environment. We’ve built great relationships with Championship clubs and many of our ex-players have done well.” While Burgess and Davis are flying the Loughborough flag for England 7s, and another pair of former players, Henry Pyrgos and Alex Allan, have played for Scotland, Morris has yet to see one of his alumni win a senior England cap. Exeter scrum-half Will Chudley came close two years ago, but Morris feels another No.9 prospect, Saracens starlet Henry Taylor, has the best chance.Taylor was dual-registered with Bedford last season after helping England U20s defend their Junior World Cup crown in 2014, and Morris believes the 21-year-old could challenge Richard Wigglesworth, Neil De Kock and Ben Spencer.
“We’d love to see one of our old boys get a full England cap and it will be interesting to see how Henry goes at Saracens this year,” said Morris.
“As a fresher he became the starting 9 in our National One side and I just kept sending tapes to Ian Peel, the U20s coach, telling him he had to look at this guy.
“Henry’s a young, intelligent man who has a big future, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on his development and hoping he gets a chance.”
Loughborough pride is filtering down to their first team, who are aiming for a big National One campaign after last season’s 13th place finish.
Morris added: “We believe our programme is getting stronger, but then so is National One. But the boys have said they want to be the most successful Loughborough side ever, which means finishing higher than the seventh we managed in 2012-13.”